Install only applications are becoming a thing of the past. Portable applications, or apps that can be installed only from a portable application store, are becoming more and more popular. Portable applications have several benefits over install only applications. They can be installed on multiple devices without having to re-install the app, they can be used offline, and they can be updated without having to re-install the app. One of the most popular portable application stores is App Store for Android. App Store for Android offers a wide variety of apps that can be installed only from its store. The store has apps for everything from entertainment to productivity tools. There are also apps that are designed specifically for use with Android devices. One of the biggest benefits of using a portable application store is that it allows you to use your favorite apps on multiple devices without having to re-install them. This is especially useful if you want to take your work with you when you travel or if you have multiple devices at home that you use regularly. Another benefit of using portable application stores is that they can be used offline. This means that you don’t have to worry about losing data if your device goes offline while an app is open. Portable application stores also offer updates in a way that install only applications cannot – they can always be updated without having to re-install the app. This means that your favorite apps will always be up-to-date no matter what device you are using them on. ..

Extracting Files from the Installer

The first trick you can try is to extract the application files directly from the installer program. By using the 7-Zip file compression utility, you can attempt to open the setup file as a compressed archive via the right click context menu.

Depending on the compression format of the installer, you may or may not be able to open it as a readable archive.

For our example, we are going to demonstrate this technique using the Quickbooks Network Diagnostic Tool which is available as an installation only program. This is a great example because typically you would only use this program one time to resolve your issue and no longer need it, making it ideal for a portable application.

By opening the install file in 7-Zip, you can see and extract the files used by the application directly into a folder.

Then simply run the application from the extracted files.

 

The utility works exactly the same as if you had installed using the setup program.

Install then Copy-Paste

For applications where you cannot use the above method, you can try installing the application on one computer and then copying the installed files to another system.

To demonstrate this method, we are going to use the VHD Resizer utility which we have written about before. When you open the installer, an MSI file, using 7-Zip you can see the file names are garbled so extracting the files would do no good.

After running the installer, open the folder the program was installed to and copy the files to another computer.

Once again, the program runs on the system where the files were simply pasted with no issue.

Limitations

While these methods will work a good bit of the time, by no means is correct functionality guaranteed. If, for example, an installer copies files to multiple locations, registers DLL’s or creates registry entries required for operation, these steps will obviously not be completed using the above methods.

For mission critical applications it is always recommended you use the program as distributed, but for everything else these methods are a great way to increase your toolbox of portable applications.

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